Notebook: He’s in the Right Frame of Mind
Santos’ mental preparation makes difference during qualifying
Thompson,CT — Walk through any garage area and you’ll find more than a handful of drivers who don’t consider themselves good qualifiers. They don’t like putting all their eggs in one two-lap basket, and they’re far more comfortable driving a car over long stretches after settling into a groove.
But if you want to win pole positions at the NASCAR reginal and national levels, you’ve got to be able to time trial well.
Bobby Santos doesn’t seem to have any issues with that whatsoever. For the second consecutive year, Santos set the Thompson International Speedway track record to win the pole for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season-opening Icebreaker. He turned a lap of 18.237 seconds (123.376 mph) Saturday to break the record he set a year ago by almost two full tenths of a second.
“Records are meant to be broken, so probably next year it will be someone else breaking it. But it’s still neat to hold the record for now,” said Santos, who has five career Tour poles, including three at Thompson. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t have set the pole today. I know the competition is tough, but we have all the right people behind me.”
As much as it is the equipment he’s driving or the support within the No. 4 “Mystic Missile” Dodge camp, Santos’ mental preparation plays a huge factor in getting his car to the front of the starting grid week after week.
The secret to time trials?
“Not think about it, just do it,” Santos said. “I think a lot of people just over-think about qualifying.
“I try to just approach it as trying to go out and hit two laps the best I can and not think about it too much. That usually works out the best for me.”
NO REDRAW: Santos took a philosophical approach to not having to re-draw for starting position after qualifying in 2011, as had been the longtime standard on the Whelen Modified Tour.
“Today’s it’s really nice, because I know we’re starting on the pole,” Santos said. “But someday we’ll qualify 10th and wish they were still doing it.”
Asked about the lack of a re-draw himself, second-place qualifier Ted Christopher said it ought to make the start of the 150-lap main event Sunday more interesting.
“As long as (Santos) don’t run me up like he usually does on every restart,” Christopher said, “it should be a good drag race into Turn 1. We’ll see.”
PLAYING HURT: Christopher, who has won seven of the last nine Whelen Modified Tour events held at Thompson, is working with an injured right hand this weekend.
Christopher suffered the injury during a crash in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour opener at Caraway Speedway in mid-March. The hand, which is sporting a soft cast, wasn’t an issue during early afternoon practice, but Christopher did aggravate the injury during a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified division heat race prior to Tour qualifying.
“It was good until I mis-shifted in the SK race, then it hurt like (heck),” Christopher said. “Their levers (inside the car) are sort of on an angle, where the Tour stuff is all straight. So now we’ve got to move the lever further forward. I didn’t think it would be a problem shifting, but it was.”
SOPHOMORE STATEMENT: Justin Bonsignore, the 2010 Whelen Modified Tour Sunoco Rookie of the Year, qualified an impressive third Saturday. He was one of four drivers to eclipse the previous track record during the session.
“We had pretty high expectations coming into the season, so to back it up with a good qualifying run like that was cool,” Bonsignore said. “It was good to break the track record – but it’s a little frustrating that it wasn’t good enough to get the pole.”
He’d like to keep the momentum going on Sunday.
“It’s a long race,” Bonsignore said. “We didn’t finish (the Icebreaker) last year. You just try to get a good top-5, top-7 finish. You never know, maybe you can squeak one out – but (Santos) is pretty quick this week.”
TO THE REAR: Last season’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year runner-up Richie Pallai Jr. is off to a rough start in this campaign, even before taking the first green flag of the season.
Pallai’s No. 39 Chevrolet blew a head gasket during the lone practice session of the afternoon at Thompson. The team planned on swapping the engine out for a new on on Saturday night, but Pallai will have to start shotgun on the 33-car field Sunday after not making a qualifying attempt.
“The car was good, too,” Pallai said.
He posted the 19th-fastest time in the 90-minute practice and said the car gave little to no indication something was amiss before the engine expired.
“It gets a little hot, but that’s about it,” Pallai said. “It’s a shame, because we were fast.
“It’s a lot of work (to change engines), but it’s just something you’ve got to do. That’s it.”
NOTES: Popular Modified driver Jimmy Blewett will not be in the Icebreaker field. Blewett, nicknamed “Showtime,” had the left rear wheel hub fall off his car in practice and ended up wrecking into the frontstretch wall. The team had no backup car at the ready and opted to pack up and call it a weekend … Thompson has hosted 112 Tour races in history, the most of any track.
Sources: Travis Barrett, Special to NASCAR Home Tracks